I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a holder for thin planar objects, such as a guitar pick, that provides convenient access to the object. More particularly, the present invention relates to a guitar pick holder adapted to be mounted to a guitar or microphone stand that provides quick and easy access to the guitar pick by a musician.
Musicians prefer to have their equipment readily available to them when they are practicing or performing so that they may concentrate on their music. Guitar players, in particular, prefer to have an ample supply of guitar picks within arms reach in order to minimize interruptions. Also, guitar players would like to set aside and retrieve these guitar picks without having to spend significant time, attention or dexterity in doing so. Thus, it is convenient for a guitar player to have a guitar pick holder that may be positioned on the guitar or a nearby microphone stand and provides quick and easy access to the guitar picks.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Guitars, particularly acoustic guitars, are delicate instruments that are handled with care by their owners. Generally, the neck and body of a guitar are made of a soft wood that is suitable for resounding harmonious tones. Thus, special care must be taken to avoid damaging or marring the surface of the guitar when a foreign object, such as a guitar pick holder, is attached to the guitar. Also, the body of the guitar acts as an echo chamber that resonates tones generated by strings of the guitar. Placement of a foreign object on the guitar body may dampen the guitar's ability to resonate and, thus, hurt its tone quality. Accordingly, most guitar players are adverse to the placement of foreign objects on the surfaces of their guitars.
It is known that a sheet music holder may be placed at the neck of a guitar to provide convenient viewing of sheet music for a guitar player. Since the neck of a guitar is relatively slender, a dual-lever clamp of a holder may be used to grip the upper and lower surfaces of the neck. To avoid damaging or marring the surface of the guitar neck, the clamp may include rubber sleeves to protect the guitar neck. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,544,056 to J. E. Berquist, which issued on Dec. 1, 1970, provides a sheet music stand having a back panel and a dual-lever clamp that attaches to the neck of a guitar. The clamp includes a pair of lever arms with a rubber sleeve covering each arm to reduce damage or marring to guitar neck.
In order to support the back panel, the sheet music holder described above must have a substantial grip of the guitar neck. Thus, the lever arms of the holder's clamp have large, flat contact surfaces that grip on the guitar neck from above and below. Accordingly, damage or marring to the surface of the guitar neck may still occur do to the large contact surfaces of the clamp and the substantial weight of the back panel.
In addition, the above sheet music holder lacks the ability to support a plurality of guitar picks and provide quick and easy access to them. In particular, a spring clip attached to the back panel of the sheet music holder provide only one slot to hold sheet music. A musician must take care to skillfully slide the sheet music into the slot. Accordingly, the above described sheet music holder is not suitable for holding a plurality of guitar picks.
As an alternative to the above described dual-lever clamp, a one-piece clip is a simpler and lighter means for attachment to a guitar neck. The grip of a one-piece clip is not as strong as that of the dual-lever clamp. Accordingly, the one-piece clip is suitable for supporting items that are much lighter than a back panel, such as pencils or guitar clips.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,705,339 to E. I. Plottle, which issued on Mar. 12, 1929 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,393 to M. Avsharian, et al., which issued on Jun. 2, 1964, each provide a pencil holder having a one-piece clip for attachment to a telephone and a linearly arranged spring for holding a plurality of pencils. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 1,705,339 describes a cylindrical clip that wraps around the cylindrical base of an old fashion telephone, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,393 describes a dual-arm clip that clamps to a flat edge at the base of a more modern telephone. The dual-arm clip includes a flat arm that is placed flush against one side of the flat edge and a curved arm that is angled against the opposite side of the flat edge. The cylindrical and dual-arm clips of the above pencil holders clamp large contact surfaces of their supporting structures.
The cylindrical and dual-arm clips of the above described pencil holders require a large contact surface for gripping a supporting structure. Thus, damage or marring to the surface of the guitar neck may still occur.
In addition, the above pencil holders do not provide quick and easy access to held objects. In particular, the spring of each holder extends linearly and horizontally away from the clip. Thus, to place a pencil in the holder, the pencil must be held above the spring and brought directly down toward the spring. Likewise, for removal, the pencil is lifted directly up from the spring. Accordingly, the above described pencil holders are not suitable for quick and easy access to a plurality of guitar picks.
Further, the above pencil holders are not adapted to the unique curvature of a guitar neck. Specifically, each clip includes either a linear arm that sets flush against one side of a flat structure or a rounded body that conforms to a rod-like structure. However, the neck of a guitar has a wide variety of angles and curves, particularly the headstock of the neck. Thus, the clips of the above holders are limited to certain types of surfaces and are not suited for the unique and varying shapes of a guitar neck.
A clip-based holder may also include a spring coil to hold an object. Instead of holding an object between adjacent turns of a spring, the object may be held within the spring coil. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,064,788 to A. E. Terry, which issued on Jun. 17, 1913 provides a clip-based holder that is used to hold a fountain pen in a vest pocket or against a shelf. The ends of the spring are joined to form a round coil, and a clip is secured to one side of the coil. Each individual turn of the coil has an elongated shape so that the coil, as a whole, has a substantially cylindrical form. Thus, by sliding the fountain pen through the coil, the inner surface of the coil grips and holds the outer surface of the object. Although the coil may only hold one object, a holder may have multiple coils to hold more than one object.
However, similar to the pencil holder of the above cited U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,393, the above holder with a spring coil has a dual-arm clip. Accordingly, concerns in regard to such a dual-arm clip include damage or marring to the surface of the guitar neck and the inability for quick and easy access to held objects. Also, as described above, dual-arm clips are not adapted to the unique curvature of a guitar neck, including the headstock of the neck.
In addition, the spring coil, as described in the above cited U.S. Pat. No. 1,064,788, is more cumbersome to use than the linearly arranged spring described in the above cited U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,705,339 and 3,135,393. The placement of an object through a spring coil, and withdrawal therefrom would require special attention by the user. Specifically, the user must expand the coiled spring wire and place the object through the coiled spring wire. Accordingly, the holder of the above patent would require substantial time and concentration.
None of the above patents describe or suggest a guitar pick holder that provides quick and easy access of multiple guitar picks and will not damage or mar the outer surface of a guitar. Also, the above patents do not describe or suggest a holder that adapts to the unique curvature of a guitar neck, including the headstock of the neck. Further, the above patents do not describe or suggest a holder that will not affect the guitar's sound or interfere with the guitar player when the holder is mounted on the neck of the guitar.